700 NYC teachers are paid to do nothing (See second post below for the entire article)

While I agree with the recent LA TImes article on problems with teachers, this New York problem is one of their own making.

From the article:

"Once their hearings are over, they are either sent back to the classroom or fired. But because their cases are heard by 23 arbitrators who work only five days a month, stints of two or three years in a rubber room are common, and some teachers have been there for five or six."

WHO ARE THESE ARBITRATORS who work only 5 days a month and HOW MUCH DO THEY GET PAID?

This is the problem. The teachers are not getting a speedy trial--they can be there for YEARS because these ARBITRATORS don't work most of the time. Yeah, there are some awful teachers and union abuses, but the fault in this case lies with the damned district. (The New York Dept of Ed, in this case.) If the arbitrators worked, say, 40 hour weeks, think of how much money the taxpayers of NY would be saved. And the teachers would get their cases heard in months, not years. They could either be sent back to the classroom or let go. And the taxpayers wouldn't be out $65 million a year.

And look at what some of these teachers are in there for:

(1) "The principal wants you out, you're gone," said Michael Thomas, a high school math teacher who has been in a reassignment center for 14 months after accusing an assistant principal of tinkering with test results. (Any kids hurt here? No, unless you count the actions of the tinkering assistant principal who is still working at the school.)

(2) "I was charged with having a student sit in my class with a hat on, singing." (Jennifer Saunders, a high school teacher who was in a reassignment center from 2005 to 2008.)

(3) [Judith] Cohen said she was charged with using abusive language when a girl cut her with scissors. (OK abusive language, but the girl cut her with scissors. Some leeway here.)

(4) [David] Suker said he was falsely accused of throwing a girl's test sign-up form in the garbage during an argument.

(5) [Philip] Nobile was assigned to a rubber room in 2007, "supposedly for pushing a boy while I was breaking up a fight."

These are not sexual abuses or physically violent episodes. They are not even emotionally abusive or long term problems. They are singular, minor incidents. There are tons of worse teachers out there. Tons of them.

NEW YORK – Hundreds of New York City public school teachers accused of offenses ranging from insubordination to sexual misconduct are being paid their full salaries to sit around all day playing Scrabble, surfing the Internet or just staring at the wall, if that's what they want to do.

Because their union contract makes it extremely difficult to fire them, the teachers have been banished by the school system to its "rubber rooms" — off-campus office space where they wait months, even years, for their disciplinary hearings.

The 700 or so teachers can practice yoga, work on their novels, paint portraits of their colleagues — pretty much anything but school work. They have summer vacation just like their classroom colleagues and enjoy weekends and holidays through the school year.

"You just basically sit there for eight hours," said Orlando Ramos, who spent seven months in a rubber room, officially known as a temporary reassignment center, in 2004-05. "I saw several near-fights. `This is my seat.' `I've been sitting here for six months.' That sort of thing."

Ramos was an assistant principal in East Harlem when he was accused of lying at a hearing on whether to suspend a student. Ramos denied the allegation but quit before his case was resolved and took a job in California.

Because the teachers collect their full salaries of $70,000 or more, the city Department of Education estimates the practice costs the taxpayers $65 million a year. The department blames union rules.

"It is extremely difficult to fire a tenured teacher because of the protections afforded to them in their contract," spokeswoman Ann Forte said.

City officials said that they make teachers report to a rubber room instead of sending they home because the union contract requires that they be allowed to continue in their jobs in some fashion while their cases are being heard. The contract does not permit them to be given other work.

Ron Davis, a spokesman for the United Federation of Teachers, said the union and the Department of Education reached an agreement last year to try to reduce the amount of time educators spend in reassignment centers, but progress has been slow.

"No one wants teachers who don't belong in the classroom. However, we cannot neglect the teachers' rights to due process," Davis said. The union represents more than 228,000 employees, including nearly 90,000 teachers.

Many teachers say they are being punished because they ran afoul of a vindictive boss or because they blew the whistle when somebody fudged test scores.

"The principal wants you out, you're gone," said Michael Thomas, a high school math teacher who has been in a reassignment center for 14 months after accusing an assistant principal of tinkering with test results.

City education officials deny teachers are unfairly targeted but say there has been an effort under Mayor Michael Bloomberg to get incompetents out of the classroom. "There's been a push to report anything that you see wrong," Forte said.

Some other school systems likewise pay teachers to do nothing.

The Los Angeles district, the nation's second-largest school system with 620,000 students, behind New York's 1.1 million, said it has 178 teachers and other staff members who are being "housed" while they wait for misconduct charges to be resolved.

Similarly, Mimi Shapiro, who is now retired, said she was assigned to sit in what Philadelphia calls a "cluster office." "They just sit you in a room in a hard chair," she said, "and you just sit."

Teacher advocates say New York's rubber rooms are more extensive than anything that exists elsewhere.

Teachers awaiting disciplinary hearings around the nation typically are sent home, with or without pay, Karen Horwitz, a former Chicago-area teacher who founded the National Association for the Prevention of Teacher Abuse. Some districts find non-classroom work — office duties, for example — for teachers accused of misconduct.

New York City's reassignment centers have existed since the late 1990s, Forte said. But the number of employees assigned to them has ballooned since Bloomberg won more control over the schools in 2002. Most of those sent to rubber rooms are teachers; others are assistant principals, social workers, psychologists and secretaries.

Once their hearings are over, they are either sent back to the classroom or fired. But because their cases are heard by 23 arbitrators who work only five days a month, stints of two or three years in a rubber room are common, and some teachers have been there for five or six.

The nickname refers to the padded cells of old insane asylums. Some teachers say that is fitting, since some of the inhabitants are unstable and don't belong in the classroom. They add that being in a rubber room itself is bad for your mental health.

"Most people in that room are depressed," said Jennifer Saunders, a high school teacher who was in a reassignment center from 2005 to 2008. Saunders said she was charged with petty infractions in an effort to get rid of her: "I was charged with having a student sit in my class with a hat on, singing."

The rubber rooms are monitored, some more strictly than others, teachers said.

"There was a bar across the street," Saunders said. "Teachers would sneak out and hang out there for hours."

Judith Cohen, an art teacher who has been in a rubber room near Madison Square Garden for three years, said she passes the time by painting watercolors of her fellow detainees.

"The day just seemed to crawl by until I started painting," Cohen said, adding that others read, play dominoes or sleep. Cohen said she was charged with using abusive language when a girl cut her with scissors.

Some sell real estate, earn graduate degrees or teach each other yoga and tai chi.

David Suker, who has been in a Brooklyn reassignment center for three months, said he has used the time to plan summer trips to Alaska, Cape Cod and Costa Rica. Suker said he was falsely accused of throwing a girl's test sign-up form in the garbage during an argument.

"It's sort of peaceful knowing that you're going to work to do nothing," he said.

Philip Nobile is a journalist who has written for New York Magazine and the Village Voice and is known for his scathing criticism of public figures. A teacher at Brooklyn's Cobble Hill School of American Studies, Nobile was assigned to a rubber room in 2007, "supposedly for pushing a boy while I was breaking up a fight." He contends the school system is retaliating against him for exposing wrongdoing.

He is spending his time working on his case and writing magazine articles and a novel.

"This is what happens to political prisoners throughout history," he said, alluding to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. "They put us in prison and we write our `Letter From the Birmingham Jail.'"

PoliCon

06-24-2009, 12:56 AM

and they are always advertising for teachers in NYC.

lacarnut

06-24-2009, 01:17 AM

The sad part is that the Democraps and the Magic Negro want every worker in the Socialized Republic of America to become unionized. Then workers rights and rules will dominate how any industry can perform. For example, the auto industry. Throw in government control and we are headed downhill.

Elspeth

06-24-2009, 01:25 AM

The sad part is that the Democraps and the Magic Negro want every worker in the Socialized Republic of America to become unionized. Then workers rights and rules will dominate how any industry can perform. For example, the auto industry. Throw in government control and we are headed downhill.

It's not just about the unions. It's about the fact that the NY City Public schools are so screwed up that the arbiters that decide how serious the teachers' infractions were only work 5 DAYS A MONTH. Really? 5 days?

lacarnut

06-24-2009, 01:35 AM

It's not just about the unions. It's about the fact that the NY City Public schools are so screwed up that the arbiters that decide how serious the teachers' infractions were only work 5 DAYS A MONTH. Really? 5 days?

If the teachers were not unionized, the arbitration period would be far shorter. Teachers and civil service employees usually get a hearing within a year in this right to work state. You would think that NY could afford to hire arbitrators that work more than 5 days a week. I wonder what kind of salaries they get. No wonder this state finances are in the crapper with this kind of stupidity. Don't mention Bloomberg as a Repub. Prez candidate to me.

Elspeth

06-24-2009, 01:50 AM

If the teachers were not unionized, the arbitration period would be far shorter. Teachers and civil service employees usually get a hearing within a year in this right to work state. You would think that NY could afford to hire arbitrators that work more than 5 days a week. I wonder what kind of salaries they get. No wonder this state finances are in the crapper with this kind of stupidity. Don't mention Bloomberg as a Repub. Prez candidate to me.

I'm with you on that, though, to be fair, I don't know if anyone could fix NYC ever. Maybe this is what the Great Flood was all about...